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EC-Council

312-50V11 · Question #678

Password cracking programs reverse the hashing process to recover passwords.(True/False.)

The correct answer is B. False. Password cracking programs do NOT reverse the hashing process because hashing is a one-way cryptographic function that cannot be mathematically inverted.

System Hacking

Question

Password cracking programs reverse the hashing process to recover passwords.(True/False.)

Options

  • ATrue
  • BFalse

How the community answered

(49 responses)
  • A
    6% (3)
  • B
    94% (46)

Why each option

Password cracking programs do NOT reverse the hashing process because hashing is a one-way cryptographic function that cannot be mathematically inverted.

ATrue

Stating true would imply hashing is reversible, which contradicts the fundamental cryptographic property of one-way hash functions.

BFalseCorrect

Hashing algorithms such as MD5, SHA-1, and NTLM are designed as one-way functions, meaning the original plaintext cannot be derived from the hash output. Password crackers instead generate candidate passwords, hash each one using the same algorithm, and compare the resulting hash to the captured target hash - a process known as hash comparison or brute-force guessing, not reversal.

Concept tested: One-way nature of cryptographic hash functions

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/seccrypto/cryptographic-hash-functions

Topics

#password cracking#one-way hashing#rainbow tables#hash functions

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